Two sentences, then stop
The instinct to explain is the most common mistake at a consular window and it is a well-meant one. Every extra clause is a new thing to ask about, and a longer answer reads as less certain rather than more thorough.
Two sentences. If more is wanted, more will be asked for. That is not a trick. It is how a five-minute interview with forty people behind you is actually structured.
The same answer, twice
Questions come back in a different form, and consistency is what is being checked. The date, the address, the amount, asked once early and once again later.
So use exact figures both times, or round both times, but do not do one of each. The inconsistency people produce is almost never dishonesty; it is having rounded the first time and being precise the second.
Who is paying
Asked directly, and hesitation here is the single most common reason an interview goes long. Know whose account it is, know the figure, and be able to say both without working it out.
This is the kind of thing that is obvious at your kitchen table and evaporates at a window, which is a fair description of everything in this scenario.
Ties, not intentions
The question is rarely what do you intend to do. It is what are you coming back to, and the answer is a fact rather than a promise: a job, a lease, a family, a course that resumes.
Robert Kessler runs three versions, visitor, work and student, at five minutes each, and the visitor one is free. He will not tell you whether you would get the visa, and he is instructed not to try.
